Around the Place

My mums are in bloom. 

It seems a little early, but I'm not complaining. 

They are beautiful.

 The Girls are looking more matronly all the time. 

Peony is the prettiest, in my opinion. 

More importantly, we appreciate their diligent egg production.

The sunflowers are beginning to fade. 

It will be interesting to see how many make seeds that we can roast. 

We have several varieties, and they don't all make edible seeds.

The leaves on the Japanese Maple tree in our front yard are getting darker. 

They'll soon begin to fall.

It's definitely September!

My backyard...

...does not offer as much "scope for the imagination" as the open road does... but I like it anyway. I've been enjoying just being at home for the past couple of weeks. It's been rainy and cool, which is not that unusual for June in these parts.

 Laura's strawberry plants are thriving. I think they like the wet, cool days. Laura planted them last year, so this is the first real harvest we've had from these plants. I do love fresh berries.

 I've put in a tiny garden, with just 6 or 8 plants. And, of course, the weeds appreciate the rain as much as the veggie plants do. I think it's time to get out the hoe.

 Over in the chicken coop Becky's pullets are happy and healthy. They bawk loudly every time they see her step outside, and when she lets them out of the pen they trail along behind her like she's the Mother Hen. They are definitely entertaining. And finally, they are beginning to look like real chickens. We're hoping for eggs sometime in September.

 I had actually gone out back to take a picture of this year's graduation afghan that I recently completed for my nephew. (Last year's picture is here... and the one for 2010 is here.) Notice who is lurking just to the right of the chair?

 It's Tabitha the Cat, who doesn't care that she's quite fat.

Nor does she care that she's also very undignified as she rolls around on her back waving her paws in the air.

I guess my own backyard is not so boring after all!

Purple Pretties

"I gotta run some errands, Mom," she said as she tried to hurry out the door yesterday afternoon.

It's not like her to not say where she's going. "You just ran some errands this morning. What errands do you have to run now?"

"Oh... just errands," she said vaguely.

 I was beginning to get alarmed. "Dad knows," she reassured me. "I just can't tell you."

A-ha! Mother's Day is coming up. I had forgotten. And so, off she went on her "secret" errand.

***

We'll be gone this weekend, so yesterday evening my family presented me with a gorgeous hanging basket full of petunias and other complementary flowers I don't know the names of. I was told it would

love the sun, but needs plenty of water. I have a perfect place to hang it, just outside the kitchen door on the back deck.

Such a thoughtful family I have! I will enjoy my Mother's Day flowers all summer.

***

I stepped outside the front door this morning to take a picture of my miniature azalea bush which is flourishing nicely. It was a house-warming gift from my friend, Kay, when we moved into our home 5 years ago.

I'm glad it has thrived. It reminds me of sweet Kay in heaven every time I notice it. The Precious Moments statuette is in memory of our previous dog, Murphy. So this is my little "memorial garden."

***

My lilacs are coming on, too. I expect they'll be in full bloom when we get back from our trip week-after-next.

I do love spring!

Signs of Spring

It's that time of year when Winter has pretty much long since worn out her welcome. Eagerly we begin to watch for the very earliest signs of Spring. According to the calendar Spring should be making her arrival next week. Usually, Spring comes late to north Idaho. Happily for us, she seems to be arriving just a little earlier than normal this year. 

Rachel has been watching for Spring's arrival in central Indiana, too. She has already spotted some bright little crocus faces in her neighborhood. No blossom sightings around here yet. 

 However, I was glad to notice that my mums are coming back for Year 4. There was some discussion here on Ramblin' Roads last fall on how to get mums to come back year after year. Mine are planted in a flower bed close to the house. Once they've finished blooming in the fall I just leave the "dead" plant there all winter. It does not look lovely, but then, neither do the bare lilac bushes in the same flower bed. When the lilacs start leafing out in a few weeks, I will cut down last year's mum stalks to allow this year's new growth to flourish. And then, hopefully enjoy blooming mums again in the fall. I don't know if that's the "secret" or not. That's just how I do it.

This is what our weather looks like most days this time of year. Snow on the mountains in the distance but not in our yard. Cloudy skies with periods of fog. And occasionally, lovely sunny days! Looking forward to more of those, for sure!

Another sign of spring is that my homeschool convention season kicks off this weekend. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Loveland, Colorado for the Home Instruction Ministries Spring Curriculum Fair where I'll be hosting the Sonlight booth. I'm flying this year, rather than driving, so I'll be responsible for all the packing, loading, and unloading that Lyle usually takes care of for me. That's making me a little nervous, but I'm sure it will be fine. This is the first of six conventions I'll be attending this Spring, so I'll keep you posted on my travels.

What signs of spring are you seeing in your neighborhood?

Not Interested

Dear Young Peddler,
Whatever it is you're selling door-to-door in my neighborhood, I'm not interested. Also, you should know, just because my garage door is open and you can see me working in the backyard does not mean you should holler at me to try to get me to buy whatever-it-is-you're-selling. I'm busy. I am not interested in stopping my work to listen to your spiel. No, thank you.

I realize you haven't even had a chance to tell me what it is. Pointing that out to me at the top of your lungs so that I can hear you clear in the backyard through the garage is not going to make me more inclined to stop what I'm doing to listen to you. Unless maybe you think I'll lay down my pruning shears and take off my gloves and come out just so you'll stop shouting at me. Did you think that would increase your chances of a sale? It won't. So please. Just move along.

Thank you!

The Lady of the House

Rushing the Season

 When it comes to springtime, I always find myself rushing the season. We still have a lot of gray chilly days this time of year, but we can tell it's spring because the grass is turning green, and bright, sunny days come along more often than they did in the winter.

Pansies and violas thrive in this kind of weather, so last night I brought a 6-pack of happy-faced violas home with me to live on my back porch, just outside the kitchen door. I'll enjoy my coffee out there in the mornings when the temperature warms up just a tad bit.

The lilacs don't think it's quite spring yet. You have to squint to see the tiniest buds on the lilac bush behind the violas. But that's okay. Their time is coming and I will enjoy them when it gets here.

Yesterday morning the ground was covered with snow. It soon melted but remained damp and chilly all day. This morning the sun is shining brightly. It's not exactly warm... but we are headed out this evening for our first camping trip of the season! We will take warm clothes and huddle around the campfire. If it turns out to be too cold for even that, we'll just enjoy playing games around the table in the trailer.

Welcome, spring!

Manito Park

 It's amazing to me that a person can live somewhere for years and still discover new places! Especially when it's been 12 years (that we've lived in north Idaho) and the "new" place is a 90-acre park on Spokane's South Hill that has been there for a hundred years! I just gotta wonder, how in the world did we not know about it all this time?

 A couple weeks ago we had Laura's senior pictures made. A friend of mine does portraits as a hobby, and when I asked her about doing them, she suggested Manito Park. I had never heard of it, but she persuaded me that it would be perfect. She was right!

 I was in awe of the rose garden. Row upon row of beautiful roses in a wide range of colors and sizes, in full bloom. Each bush was carefully labeled with the name of the variety.

 The most unusual one I saw was this red-and-white-striped beauty. It's called "Fourth of July!"

 There was a dahlia bed not too far from the roses. I had never seen such huge dahlias... and again, in a wide range of colors.

I thoroughly enjoyed my walk through the carefully cultivated gardens that morning. I didn't have time to see everything I would have liked to, but I was happy to know that it's only 30-45 minutes away, so you can bet we'll be back!

Although, I expect the pretty flowers may be gone by now... Jack Frost doing his thing, you know. But it's something to look forward to next spring!

A Cotton-Pickin' Sunbonnet

Heirlooms, in my mind, are the material things we inherit that have stories attached to them. The stories are the real treasures, and the object is just a reminder of the story. My mother gave me several such treasures when I was at her house at Christmas time.

As we were going through boxes one evening, she showed me her sunbonnet from when she was a young girl. As a farmer's daughter she picked many pounds of cotton wearing this very bonnet. It is a simple flat pattern and the brim was kept stiff with slats of thin cardboard inserted in the pockets.

I asked if I could have it, and she wondered what I wanted it for. "To hang on my kitchen clothesline, of course!" I told her. I have several other small pieces of nostalgia hanging on my kitchen wall, and I thought it would work in perfectly. So she agreed to let me have it. She told me if I ever needed to replace the cardboard in the bonnet, that a cereal box was what to use. I'll be sure to keep that in mind!

The little child's apron hanging next to it was also hers, but that's a story for another day.

I thought I remembered some colored slides of the family working in the field, with the girls wearing their sunbonnets. Turns out, in these pictures they are actually gathering sweet potatoes, not cotton.

The pictures were taken in the 1950s in southwestern Oklahoma.

I appreciate the heritage of a strong work ethic that was passed down in my family... along with the bonnet and the stories.

For more Vintage Thingy Thursday posts visit Coloradolady.

Rose Creek Garden

My sister-in-law is an avid gardener. Thought you might enjoy a few glimpses of her pretty garden!
A vintage bicycle welcomes you to the garden.
She has heart-shaped stepping-stones engraved with the names of each of her children. (Yes, she has 9 children!)
I snapped lots of pictures of many of the dozens of different varieties of flowers that are currently blooming. I loved these cheery black-eyed susans.
A brand-new rose is about to bloom!
The liked the way this rustic bench looked against the cornfield fence. It's only big enough for one person... so it's not officially a "flirting bench"... but not to worry! There are plenty of other places for sitting and "smooching" throughout the garden!